And it's 54!

 Today was okay, I guess. Long, got some news of added tasks that are added to the giant sloppy Jenga of tasks I'm already trying to complete. So at 5:15 pm, as I finished up the rewrite of the lab for this week (after checking which specimens were available in the herbarium) I decided to get barbecue for dinner, because I hadn't the energy to cook, and also I think one should not have to cook on one's birthday if one doesn't want to:

I also opened my presents. Earlier I had opened a package from Adagio; it was a tin of Chocolate Treat tea and a small pack of different chais. I don't know if someone ordered that for me or if maybe they do that sometimes for long time customers - there was a Happy Birthday note but no name.

And a couple of Amazon boxes, a gift from a friend:

My mom sent me some gifts, including a sweatshirt I had asked for for Christmas and that had been out of stock then:

On Saturday, I did make the semi-traditional yarn shop trip:

Their hours are limited right now - some staff turnover and also during the week there's construction going on (the sidewalks are being redone - as they are now they are VERY high relative to the street and it's actually uncomfortable to step up the steep step onto them. I hope they are lowering them)

I didn't need more "scarf quantities" of worsted-weight yarn, but this one (Cliffs of Moher - an Irish yarn with some New Zealand wool mixed in) was so lovely I couldn't resist buying about 600 yards. It will most likely eventually become a scarf; I have a number of "reversible" patterns that would look nice.

This is the yarn for the "Octarine" socks; the closest this reality can come (I think) to the color as Pratchett described it.

This will become socks eventually. Probably just plain socks? I don't know.

I also went to Lovejoy's for lunch, had their combo - a small croissant sandwich and their good quiche.

And a slice (half-slice really) of coconut cake.

I also went to the quilt shop there and bought a Jelly Roll, but it's mostly pale prints, so it won't look like much until I sew it up. 

I will say I realized on the trip this Saturday - this year I mostly went around unmasked (nowhere was crowded) and it felt much like old times. Last year, I went, but as I remember, I wore a mask in the shops (but did eat in Lovejoy's, and then worried I might have been exposed (I was not, or at least, having had two vaccines and the first booster made the difference). In 2021, that was shortly after my first vaccine and the "celebration" was a fast, masked trip to JoAnn's, and lunch from the Sonic (because I could eat in my car with the windows open). In 2020, of course, the virus hadn't really hit here yet, but I remember being in the Target and thinking it was wise to buy more TP and canned goods (And that's when I bought the big stuffed Kirby that still sits on my sofa, thinking "well, maybe this will be the last chance to be out for a while." And yes, it was, and much longer than I anticipated (in the early days, I really thought this would be like OG SARS, and be over in like 2 months). But really - less than three years to get back to something somewhat like normal for me is pretty amazing, given that in like April and May of 2020 there were people saying that there wouldn't be a vaccine for at least five years, if at all.